Genomic regions influencing aggressive behavior in honey bees are defined by colony allele frequencies

Significance Honey bee colony defense is an emergent trait composed of individual aggressive responses. Here, we investigated the relationship between individual genotype, colony allele frequency, and aggression in individual bees. Our findings show that the colony-level defense response strongly correlates with colony-level allele frequency in a way that can be used to identify causative genomic regions. Importantly, we were able to validate a key associated region as also being under selection. As very similar allele frequency correlations are observed in both soldier and forager bees, we conclude that group genetics is more important than individual genetics in this case, giving further insight into the relationships between “nature,” “nurture,” and behavioral evolution.